


The Guardian of Man

by gluedwithgold



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adventure/Mystery/Suspense, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Lore - Freeform, Mentions of hell, Visions, mentions of possession, mentions of torture, the bunker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-11
Updated: 2016-01-11
Packaged: 2018-05-13 05:45:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5697253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gluedwithgold/pseuds/gluedwithgold
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Winchesters' world changes when Sam bumps into a stranger in a convenience store.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Lexi walked into the bright light of the convenience store, pausing briefly to brush the droplets of rain from her hair and scan the room for the coffee machines. She headed for the far corner, the warm, bitter scent of four different brews drawing her in as she approached.  
  
With her attention focused on the promise of warmth and caffeine, she didn’t notice the tall, long-haired man who had just stepped away from the coffee counter, her shoulder slamming into his arm as they passed, knocking her slightly off-balance. Her hand instinctively reached up and grabbed his forearm to steady herself.  
  
“Oh, I’m so sor…” The lightning strike of pain pierced through her skull sending electrified needles into her brain, her hand releasing the man’s arm to grasp at her temple with a sharp intake of breath. She pinched her eyes tightly closed as a wave of images passed through her mind in rapid succession.  
  
“Hey, you okay?” the man’s voice broke through the pain and chaotic visions, like a distant echo, chasing away the torrent enough to allow her to open her eyes again. She looked up to see him stooped over slightly, concerned hazel eyes trying to meet hers. His hand reached out, aimed for her shoulder in a comforting gesture. She stepped backward quickly to avoid repeating physical contact with the man.  
  
“I...I have to go…” she whispered, turning from the man’s gaze and darting across the linoleum toward the door, back out into the drizzly night.

* * *

“Dude, we are not putting a foosball table in the bunker, that’s stupid!” Sam followed his brother toward the concrete stairs leading down to the door of the bunker. Dean turned back to glare at Sam as he pulled the key from the front pocket of his jeans.

“You’re stupid, foosball is aweso…”  
  
“Dean!” Sam cut him off, having stopped mid-step halfway down the staircase. He pointed to the dark mass huddled in the corner of the retaining wall at the bottom of the stairs. His blood turned icy and his heartbeat quickened, not quite able to make out what it was in the shadow created by the dusky light.  
  
“What the hell?” Dean had followed his brother’s gesture, freezing at the sight. His hunter's instincts taking over, his hand immediately reached back to his waistband to retrieve his gun.  
  
Hearing the click of the safety being disengaged, Sam glanced at Dean. Seeing the brief nod confirming he was at the ready to cover him, Sam stepped down the remaining few steps and approached the corner. As he closed in on the mass, he could make out the shape of a person, curled into a tight ball with arms wrapped around knees, a curly nest of dark hair half-covering an unconscious face. Crouching down to lean in a little closer, Sam cocked his head slightly to the side as recognition flooded over him.

“What the hell? Dean, this the girl,” Sam said as he turned back to look at his brother. “The one from the Gas N Sip last week who ran out after she bumped into me!”  
  
“What? The one you said looked like she was having a freaky vision like you used to?” Dean lowered his gun and took a step forward to look closer at the still body. “That was back in Maryland!”  
  
“I’m pretty sure,” Sam said as he reached out to brush the hair from the woman’s face. “Yeah, this is definitely her, Dean.”  
  
Sam lowered one knee to the concrete to lean in closer still and laid a hand on her shoulder, shaking gently to try to rouse her back into consciousness. Her eyelids parted to reveal blue-grey eyes rimmed with red as the sound of a sharp intake of breath filled the small space. Her eyes widened as she recognized the face in front of her, a flash of fear striking across her face.  
  
“Sam, you’re in danger!” she said, her voice trembling with anxiety before she grasped both temples with her hands, letting out a quiet moan of pain. She leaned forward slightly, tightening her body into an even tinier ball before slumping back against the wall, unconsciousness taking her over again.

* * *

A quiet moan rumbled from Lexi’s throat as she opened her eyes, the yellow color of the dimly lit room seeming hazy. A few quick blinks and the space around her began to sharpen. Sitting comfortably in an overstuffed chair, she took stock of her situation. She wasn’t hurt, nothing on her body was in pain except for the throbbing headache she’d had continuously for the past week. The room in front of her contained several long tables, bookcases all around...a library?

 _“How the hell did I end up in a library?”_ she wondered, still taking in her surroundings. At the far end of the furthest table a man was slumped over, head resting on folded arms, his breath coming out in quiet snores.

 _“Great, now what have I gotten myself into?”_ She searched the perimeter of the room, looking for an exit, debating at the same time if she should make a noise to get the dozing man’s attention. It was then that the tall, shaggy-haired man stepped into the room, instantly filling her with anxiety. She froze in the chair, still except for the uncontrollable trembling of every inch of her body.

“Sam…” The word escaped her lips before she had half a second to consider it, and his head whipped to the side of the room to look directly at her. Sam froze mid-step, then let out a slow breath.

“Hi. Are you okay?” He kept his eyes on the small woman curled into the chair as he reached back to set the coffee mug he’d been carrying on the table behind him. He started to move closer to her, but stopped when he noticed her tensing, curling herself into a ball.

“Yes, don’t...just don’t touch me,” she said glaring up at him while pulling her arms tighter around her shoulders. “Please.”

“Okay, okay...that’s fine. Let’s just talk, okay?” His voice was soft, comforting, as he raised both hands in front of him in a gesture of surrender. He turned slowly to pull a chair from the nearest table, moving it to face her but keeping it about six feet away. He sat, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, hands clasped in front of him. “What’s your name?”

“Lexi.” She let herself relax slightly, somehow finding Sam’s presence soothing and anxiety-inducing at the same time. “Where am I?”

“You’re in our home, we found you passed out by the door a few hours ago. My brother and I brought you inside,” Sam gestured to the sleeping man across the room. Just then a click echoed through the room along with a rustling of movement at the table.

“Against my better judgement. Who are you?” Dean said as he moved from sitting to standing with his gun firmly trained on Lexi’s head.

“Dean, stop!” Sam stood quickly and bolted across the room to put a hand over his brother’s, lowering the weapon. “Can’t you see she’s terrified? And we searched her, she doesn’t have any weapons.”

“Yeah, well if she’s not after us then why did she follow us all the way from Maryland?” He tried raising the gun up again, but Sam pulled it from his hand, flipping the safety back on.

“Dean! Come on, man, we don’t need a gun, okay? Let’s just talk to her and figure this out.” Sam put a hand to his brother’s shoulder, lightly pushing him back down to his seat before setting the gun on the table out of his immediate reach. He returned to the chair in front of Lexi. Her eyes were wide and her body visibly shaking now. “Sorry, he’s a little...nervous.”

“I’m not in Maryland?” Lexi squeaked out, her voice shaking and barely audible.

“No, Kansas...you don’t remember…”

“I don’t know how I got here...last I knew...oh god…” her voice broke off as tears started to overflow her eyes and the trembling grew stronger.

“Hey, hey it’s okay,” Sam said as he began to move toward her, wanting to comfort her but remembering her request that he not touch her. “It’s okay, we’ll figure this out. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Um...I…” Lexi took in a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she wiped at the tears on her face. “A headache. I was at home with a really bad headache. And I kept seeing...I must have been dreaming. Then I woke up here.”

“Lexi, how did you know my name?” Sam asked, eyebrows slightly raised, hoping he wasn’t pushing too fast.

“Well,” Lexi looked at Sam, then darted a glance across the room to where Dean sat with a scowl, his eyes boring into her. She briefly glanced at the gun on the table before returning her focus to Sam. “The headaches. I see things...when I have the headaches, I see you.”

Sam’s eyes grew wide as he turned to look at Dean, who sat forward in his chair, the scowl fading, a look of concern replacing it. Lexi looked from one man to the other, the trembling in her body starting up again, emanating from her core.

“When did it start?” Sam asked, returning his focus back to her.

“At...at the convenience store. When I touched you it was like a wave.” She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes against the tears that threatened to start falling again. “I know I’m crazy.”

“Well you came to the right place,” Dean said gently, all traces of his previous anger gone from his voice. “Crazy is what we do.”

“Great,” Lexi said with a sarcastic chuckle. “I’m so glad crazy headaches are in your wheelhouse.”

“Visions.” Sam said. “They’re visions. I used to have them, too.”

Lexi froze at Sam’s words, staring him directly in the eyes. A new wave of anxiety shot through her, a tight band around her chest squeezing the trembling to the surface and the tears from her eyes. A sob escaped her lips and all control of her emotions left her as she sat in the chair, crying, hugging her knees to her chest. The realization that she wasn’t imagining all of this, that it was, in fact, real, was overwhelming her completely. Her sobbing came louder and faster as she just broke down and let it come.

“Hey...hey, hey, hey, it’ll be okay, Lexi,” Sam said as he moved from the chair to kneel in front of the sobbing woman who had closed herself into a ball so small she looked like a child. He reached out and placed a hand to her shoulder, desperate to comfort her because he knew without a doubt what the fear and confusion she was feeling was like. Seconds after his hand made contact with her shaking body he felt a sharp electric twinge shoot into his hand. She let out a gasp and her hands shot up to her temples, grasping at her skull. Her face contorted into a pained wince and she leaned forward with a moan. Sam pulled his hand away from her, letting it hover in mid-air as he watched her writhe. It was only seconds before the tension all let loose and she slunk back in the chair, unconscious again.


	2. Chapter 2

Dean pulled the door to the bedroom closed quietly after laying the unconscious Lexi on the bed. He grasped Sam by the shoulder and pulled him along down the hallway back toward the library.

“Dude, what the hell?” he said as soon as he was sure they were out of earshot of the bedroom.

“She passes out every time she touches you?”

“Dean, this is weird. When I touched her shoulder there was a shock, my hand is still tingling from it.” Sam ran a hand over his face and up through his hair. “There’s something more than just psychic visions going on here.”

“Great, so it’s not just freaky visions, it's _freaky_ freaky visions.” Dean flopped down in a chair at the table where his laptop was set up and opened up a search window. “Man I don’t even know what to search for here!”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve never heard of anything like this.” Sam slid into a chair across from his brother, resting his elbows on the table and his chin on his clasped hands. “She’s nothing evil, I’m pretty sure of that. But dude, she said I was in danger?”

“Yeah, I don’t like the sound of that,” Dean leaned forward and tapped his fingers on the keyboard as though the motion would create the right words to search. He looked up at his brother over the top of the computer “Cas?”

“What about him?”

“Maybe he can do his angel-mojo diagnosis thing on her?” Dean shrugged.

“Worth a shot, the sooner we figure out what this is, the better,” Sam said as he slumped down in the chair, finally noticing how tense the day’s events had made him. Seeing someone having visions again had brought back much of his old anxiety about the yellow eyed demon and his former...or dormant?...abilities. He watched as his brother closed his eyes, tilted his head back and began the familiar task of calling the angel to him.

“Cas, buddy, strap on those wings and come down here...we can use your help with a weird one!” Dean called out, keeping his eyes closed for a second before glancing around the room to see where his friend might have landed. The familiar whoosh of wings filled the air in the room just before Castiel walked up to the table to sit beside Sam.

“Sam. Dean. What can I help with?” the dark-haired, disheveled angel looked from one man to the other as he pulled the chair up closer to the table.

“Dude we’ve got some weird psychic chick passed out in one of the bedrooms. She just appeared outside the door and man, the whole thing is weird, Cas.” Dean leaned forward toward Castiel, his own anxiety over the situation apparent in his tense posture. Cas cocked his head slightly to one side as he watched his friend.

“What’s ‘weird’ about her?” he asked.

“She seems to get visions any time she and I have physical contact,” Sam answered, his voice tentative, as though saying it out loud made it more true. “Visions painful enough that she passes out every time.”

“Dude,” Dean chuckled. “Guess there’s no way you’re hitting that, huh?”

“Dean…” Sam glared across the table at his brother’s grin.

“And, she doesn’t know how she got here, she was passed out when we found her and when she woke up she thought she was still in Maryland,” Dean continued, brushing off his brother’s bitchface.

“It’s happened three times now, once in a store in Maryland and twice now here.” Sam glanced between his brother and the angel as he spoke. “And the last time I felt a shock on my hand when I touched her. Any idea what this is, Cas?”

“What’s her name?” Cas asked, his brow furrowed with concern.

“Lexi,” Dean and Sam said in unison.

“I think I know what she is, but I should see her to be sure.” Cas paused as he pushed his chair back and stood, looking between the brothers, then took a deep breathe. “I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

* * *

Lexi woke to find herself comfortable and warm in a bed, but her head was still throbbing mercilessly. She pulled herself up to sit with her back against the headboard of the bed, and closed her eyes against the fresh wave of pain until it passed. 

She sat, quietly taking stock of the events of the past few hours. She was surprised she wasn’t panicking and scared, but there was something about Sam that made her assume everything was going to end up being fine. This felt entirely bizarre, but at the same time…. 

The bedroom door swung partway open, slowly, and Sam poked his head in. When he saw her awake and sitting up, he pushed the door open further and took a few steps into the room. 

“Hey, you okay?” he asked, his voice quiet, concerned. 

“I think so, yeah.” Lexi looked up at Sam and tried to smile. “I mean, I feel like my head might explode it hurts so much, but I think I’m okay.” 

“I’ll get you some aspirin,” Sam said, returning the half-smile. “We have someone here who might be able to help figure out what all this is, if you’re up to meeting him?” 

“The sooner we figure this out, the better.” Lexi swung her legs over the bed and stood, following Sam from the room. 

On entering the library, Lexi saw Dean talking quietly with a man clad in a khaki trenchcoat. As the man turned to meet her eyes, the vibrant, almost glowing blue struck her as somewhat odd. There was something different about the man, but she could feel Sam’s trust in him and apparently that was enough for her to trust him as well. 

“Lexi, this is Castiel,” Sam said as he walked around the table to sit next to the man. He greeted her with a slight nod and a small smile, looking at her as though sizing her up. Not getting what he needed visually from her, he stood and reached an arm out toward her to shake hands. 

“Nice to meet you,” he said as Lexi took a tentative step towards him. Although hesitant to touch anyone after the pain she’d been going through with Sam, she reached out anyway and grasped his hand firmly. 

As their hands met, Lexi felt an energy flow into her. It wasn’t unpleasant; in fact, it was somewhat warm and soothing. It was just strange, not at all like the electric current that pulsed into her when she connected with Sam. And there were no images assaulting her with the touch, just a weird vibration and a dim, high-pitched tone that she was sure would hurt her ears if it were any louder. 

“You’ve got quite a headache, don’t you?” Cas asked as he let his hand fall from hers. He stepped a little closer, slowly raising his hand up toward her head. “May I?” 

Lexi froze in confusion, her mouth gaping half open while staring at him, no words making it from her brain to her tongue. 

“It’s okay, Lexi, he’s...a healer. He can help,” Sam said. 

“I guess…” Lexi relaxed slightly, her gaze still locked on the man’s vibrant blue eyes. He pressed two fingers to her forehead then, the same vibration flowing into her again, but this time with a stronger pulsating warmth that seemed to push the headache back away from her, fading it until it was completely gone. He pulled his fingers from her, then her eyes, that she’d not noticed closing, flew open again.  “Whoa. That’s some aspirin you got there, Sam.” 

“Well, Cas?” Dean asked, shifting impatiently in his seat at the table. “What is she?” 

Sam and Lexi both shot an identical scathing glare at Dean for his rudeness as Cas returned to his seat with a sigh. 

“She’s a Guardian of Man,” he said, glancing between all three who stared at him blankly, waiting for more explanation. 

“Okay, a little more here, Cas,” Dean said, his impatience growing. 

“There are hundreds on earth, some never meet the people they’re meant to guard. They'll all have names meaning 'guardian' or 'defender'.” The angel shifted uncomfortably in his chair, knowing his friends were not going to be happy with what he had to say. “They are human, but have the ability to connect with certain other people, usually people who have a special purpose for their lives. A guardian will protect a person by seeing dangers ahead of time, warning them so they can take a different path. They are like a psychic bodyguard.” 

“Why all the pain, then?” Sam asked, glancing over to Lexi, noticing her eyes frozen, wide, staring straight ahead. 

“What is happening when she touches you is all your history flowing into her, all your memories and thoughts. If she’d found you at an earlier age, or if you’d led a less...intense...life, it wouldn’t be so painful for her. Once she has all of your past connected to her psyche, the pain won’t continue. But she’ll have premonitions of things to come for you. Things that either need to happen or need to be prevented.” 

“Okay, so Sammy has his own personal psychic,” Dean said, shifting back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. “What’s so bad about that? You said we wouldn’t like this.” 

“Well, once the connection is established,” Cas said glancing over at Lexi. “She can’t leave him.” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Lexi said, backing up a few steps from the table and three strangers she’d suddenly found herself with. “What the fuck do you mean I can’t leave?” 

“You don’t remember coming here, right?” Cas asked calmly. 

“No, I just woke up after they found me outside.” 

“That’s the psychic connection. It put you here.” 

“How did it put her here?” Sam asked, now fidgeting in his chair, not really happy about where all this was going. 

“Subatomically,” Cas replied dryly, looking between Sam and Lexi. “The connection finds the strongest imprint of your psychic makeup, the place you’re most likely to be, and draws her there particle by particle. The stronger the connection, the more of your psyche she gathers, the more accurate it will become. Basically, you’re stuck with each other.” 

Lexi pulled out a chair and flopped down heavily with her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands. She let out an audibly shaky sigh. She muttered under her breath, “This is just fucking great.” 

Sam felt the color drain from his face as he heard his friend’s words. He dropped his head, hair falling forward to cover his panicked expression as he stared at his hands on the table. His mind raced with chaotic thoughts, with the enormity of the situation. Having another person thrust into his life was not out of the ordinary. Having her stuck in his life was uncomfortable. But the idea that she would be downloading his life was causing an iron band of anxiety to wrap tightly around his chest, squeezing the breath from him and forcing a wave of trembling to the surface. He sucked in a deep breath, then forced it out slowly, followed by a brief clearing of his throat. 

“Does this mean something is coming?” he asked, raising his eyes to meet Cas’s. “She said I was in danger.”

“Not necessarily. Guardians have been around since the dawn of man, and in earlier times, when there was a much smaller population, they had a much easier time finding their connections. Now, with so many people in the world, they hardly ever meet, so it may be she was meant to guide you through the things you’ve already experienced. Given your line of work, it’s not surprising you have one.” 

“Wh..what line of work?” Lexi stuttered, suddenly realizing just how overwhelmed she was feeling and how many details of the situation were missing. 

“Sammy, you give the talk. I’ll get the drinks,” Dean said with a sigh as he stood to walk across the room. Chewing his bottom lip, he poured three glasses of whiskey. He returned to the table, sliding one glass across to his brother who was reciting the well-practiced speech about the dark things in the world they’d spent their life fighting. He placed a second glass in front of the shaking Lexi before sitting back down with his own. A hard pit had formed in his stomach throughout the course of the conversation, knotting and churning inside him. The thought of including another person in the well-oiled machine of his life with his brother was ripping at his insides and his mind was already racing to find a way to stop it from going any further than it already had. 

As Sam finished explaining the hunter’s life to Lexi, she felt dizzy. The pungent scent of the whiskey in front of her was suddenly enticing, and she grabbed the glass with shaking fingers and brought it to her mouth, downing the burning liquid in one quick gulp. She looked up at Sam, then over to Dean, her eyes wide and her mouth opening to say...something, though nothing came out. She glanced across the table at Cas, a realization now dawning on her. 

“So, Castiel is…” 

“An angel,” he said, bluntly. 

“Okay.” Lexi breathed out, spinning the empty glass in front of her. “All of this is real?” 

“Afraid so,” said Dean, appearing at her side with the bottle of whiskey, refilling her glass. 

“Fucking _great_ ,” she muttered, downing the second shot of whiskey and returning the glass to the table with a thud. 

“Well, at least she’ll fit in around here,” Dean said with a chuckle, draining his own glass.


	3. Chapter 3

Lexi woke, warm, comfortable and rested, her eyes fluttering open slowly. She took in the sparse furnishings of the room around her and suddenly the memory of the previous night’s conversation flooded back to her with a pang of panic and desperation. She sighed and pulled the blanket up over her head as if it could erase all the events of the last day. Her mind soon flooded with questions about being a guardian that the angel Cas _(seriously, an angel?)_ hadn’t had answers to. He’d left...or rather disappeared in a flutter of wings...to find answers. She was idly wondering if there was really a heaven, if that was where he’d gone, when there was a quiet knock on the door.

“I’m up!” she called out, then heard the door swing open.

“Um...rough morning?” Sam asked with a slight chuckle as he saw the lump that was Lexi buried completely under the covers. He heard a quiet groan before the blanket flopped down to reveal the sleepy-looking, wild-haired woman underneath.

“Oh, y’know, just trying to hide from reality,” she said with a weak smile as she looked up at the tall man grinning down at her. “Oooooh is that coffee?”

“Oh, yeah...here…” Sam took the two quick steps into the room and set the mug he’d been holding on the nightstand, not wanting to risk brushing fingers and causing Lexi a new bout of pain.

“Thanks,” Lexi said, reaching for the mug once Sam had taken a step back. “No offense, but this whole situation doesn’t exactly have me excited to be here.”

“Yeah, no, I hear ya,” Sam replied as he pulled an armchair around to face Lexi as she sat up in bed sipping at her coffee. “Wasn’t really in my plans, either.”

“At least you’ve been dealing with bizarre crap your whole life. This is pretty overwhelming for me.”

“Give it time, it’ll sink in.” Sam smiled at her softly, remembering distinctly what it felt like to learn how much more there was to the world than just people. “It’ll get better.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Lexi said, running her index finger idly around the lip of her mug. “It’s not that I have...or I guess, had...such a great life. But apparently it’s gone now. And at least it was simple.”

“Unfortunately it looks like simple is out of the equation now,” Sam replied with a sigh. He reached up with one hand, scratching nervously at the back of his neck. “So...how much of my life have…”

“Have I had blasted through my brain?” Lexi took a deep gulp of coffee before setting the cup back on the nightstand. “Not much that I can make sense of. Well, I guess a lot of it _wouldn’t_ make sense, now that I know what you do. But it’s mostly flashes, images, it’s not like I’ve seen a replay of every time you’ve gotten laid or anything.”

“Well that’s comforting!” Sam laughed as his cheeks flushed pink. “When we found you outside, you said I was in danger...what made you think that?”

“I saw a man,” she replied, a shudder spiraling up her spine and releasing with a slight twitch in her shoulders. “He had yellow eyes, and he was…”

“That was Azazel. Dean killed him.”

“Huh. What was he?”

“Demon.” Sam leaned back in the chair, wiping his slightly sweaty palms down his denim-clad thighs. “Anything else you remember?”

“There was this thing...giant mouth, huge teeth…”

"Leviathan. We sent them back to Purgatory.”

“You know, this isn’t really helping me feel any less overwhelmed, Sam.” Lexi glared across the small space at Sam, satisfied at seeing his face drop and his eyes widen at the realization of what the conversation meant for her.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean…”

“I know, I just need a little more time between truth-bombs I guess.” She reached over and picked up her coffee mug again, taking another deep drink. “Mostly I’ve just felt a lot of emotions. Sadness, guilt. Feeling like you’ve let people down. Guess you can’t do what you do without coming out of it with a few issues.”

“Yeah, just a few,” Sam said quietly, feeling his face flush again. He shifted uncomfortably in the chair, clearing his throat before speaking again. “So, Cas is going to pop back in a little while to let us know what he found out. I put some clean towels in the bathroom if you want to shower, and Dean has a grease-fest going in the kitchen if you’re hungry.”

“Okay,” Lexi said, sliding her legs over the edge of the bed to get up as Sam stood and walked toward the door. “Thanks, Sam.”

* * *

Lexi padded back into the library, bare-footed, hair still wet, setting her freshly filled coffee mug on the table before sitting in the empty chair next to Dean. Both hunters were engrossed in their work, Sam scrolling the screen of his laptop and Dean slowly scanning the pages of a dusty book.

“So, um…” Lexi cleared her throat, spinning her mug on the table. “I hate to ask, but...well, I didn’t exactly have a chance to pack for this trip, and I don’t have any clothes or anything…”

“Oh!” Sam looked up from his computer, across the table at the freshly showered woman wearing the same clothing she’d had on yesterday. “Sorry I never gave that a thought, we can go out this afternoon and pick up what you need.”

“Thanks, I’m sure all our noses will appreciate it.” Lexi smiled as she lifted the coffee mug to take a sip. She jumped at the whooshing sound and sudden appearance of Castiel standing inches from her side, nearly toppling the mug of hot liquid. “Shit!”

“Cas, man,” Dean said, looking up at the sound of the expletive. “Personal space!”

“Sorry,” the angel replied as he stepped away from Lexi, walking around the table to sit next to Sam. “I have some answers for you.”

“ _PLEASE_ tell me you found a way to break this connection thing?” Dean blurted as he slammed the cover closed on the book he’d been reading.

“Unfortunately the only way it will be broken is if Sam or Lexi dies. Once established, the connection is permanent.”

“Winchester, party of three. _Great!_ ” Dean muttered, letting out a loud sigh before his face slipped into what could only be described as a pout.

“Dean, don’t be an ass,” Sam said, glaring across the table at his brother before glancing at Lexi next to him, who was casting an equally dagger-filled look toward Dean. “What about the headaches? If she’s stuck here we can’t exactly avoid bumping into each other for the rest of our lives.”

“I couldn’t find any information about that, like I said before the situation is different than how it’s normally played out, the intensity of the initial connecting here is much greater than usual. But I think I have a way to get through it with minimal damage.”

“Minimal _d_ _amage_?” Lexi blurted, eyes darting between Sam and Cas, a wave of fear rising from the pit of her stomach.

“Yes, if you were to just allow the connection to happen, the intensity of it would probably cause you to have an aneurism,” Cas replied bluntly, not noticing the growing wideness of the frightened woman’s eyes. “But I think if I continually heal you as you touch Sam, we can get through the process with little more than a migraine. It may take a few sessions, doing it in stages, but it’s the safest way.”

“And once I’ve...downloaded Sam...that’ll be it? No more pain?” Lexi asked, her fear subsiding somewhat, but tension still overtly visible in her tight shoulders.

“Yes, after you’ve absorbed Sam’s history, you’ll only have brief visions of times you’re not with him, and those shouldn’t cause any discomfort. If you have any premonitions, those may come with a headache but nothing as intense as what you’ve been experiencing.”

“What about the subatomic, beam-me-up-Scotty thing?” Dean piped up, leaning forward in his chair. “How far can Sam go from her before she transports herself back to him?”

“In most cases it’s about a five mile radius. She’ll need to travel with you from now on.”

“Five freaking miles?” Dean blurted, his voice raising. “We can’t have a little girly psychic tagging along with us everywhere!”

“Dean!” Sam yelled over his brother, his own voice just as loud.

“Hey!” Lexi added, anger quickly shading her face red. “You don’t know me or what I’m capable of, so quit being a judgemental douche, okay? It’s not like I asked for this and it’s not like I’m happy about it especially considering you seem to be exactly the kind of arrogant asshole I really prefer _not_  to spend any time with!”

“Okay, okay,” Sam said, raising a hand to quiet Dean before he could continue the argument. “Lexi, Dean is just concerned you’ll get hurt. Really, I promise. And Dean, we can train her in defense so she can protect herself if she pops into any dangerous situations. Okay?”

Sam looked between his brother and Lexi, waiting until he got a nod of acceptance from both of them. He let out a loud sigh as he ran a hand through his hair, his mind playing through all the future arguments he could see happening between the two, realizing that the connection between he and Lexi was probably the least of his problems now.

* * *

“Okay, Lexi, we’ll start with just one minute at a time,” Cas said as he set the phone with its timer on the screen in the middle of the table. “If you are in too much pain at any time, just pull away and stop.”

“Okay,” Lexi sighed as she looked up at Castiel. She glanced across the table at Sam, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. “This is nuts, but okay.”

“Same goes for you, Sam, I have no idea if prolonged connection will affect you the same way, so stop if it gets to be too much.”

“Yup. Let’s try this,” Sam blurted nervously, reaching his arm across the table toward Lexi.

“Okay,” Cas said as he reached out to touch the start button on the timer, then placed two fingers softly to Lexi’s forehead. “Go ahead and take his hand, Lexi.”

With a short burst of breath, Lexi steeled herself for the burst of pain she was expecting and wrapped her fingers around Sam’s outstretched hand. The now-familiar wave of imagery shot through her instantly, followed by the pain in her temples. She gasped in sharply, and just as she was about to pull away, she felt the warm vibration from Castiel’s fingers start pushing the pain back again. After a few seconds the pain was gone, and the chaotic visions slowed to a less dizzying pace and started to fall into order.

Still assaulting her brain rapidly, Lexi was able to make sense of what she was seeing now, images of Sam’s life in fast-forward. She saw snippets, vignettes of Sam and Dean from the time they were children through adulthood. She saw Sam’s father and Bobby, Ellen and Jo, Rufus, Charlie, even Castiel. All people who she understood to be Sam’s family.

She saw Sam in school and learning to read with unbridled excitement, studying history and folklore and mythology. She saw countless books Sam had read both for learning and just plain enjoyment. She saw Sam filling out a college application and felt his nervousness while he did. She felt his excitement and hope when he read his acceptance letter, and his soul-crushing disappointment when his father said he couldn’t go. She saw the argument Sam had with his father about it, saw him walk away from his father and brother with a mixture of anger, fear and remorse.

The timer on the phone in the center of the table chimed, and the three removed their hands from each other. Lexi sat back in the chair with a long exhalation of breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

“You alright?” Sam asked, looking across the table at Lexi, concerned and somewhat embarrassed, wondering what she’d seen.

“Yeah, yeah I’m good.” Lexi glanced over at Cas, who seemed to be scanning her with his eyes as though he wanted to be sure nothing had broken.

“It seems to be working well,” Cas said, looking over at Sam. “How are you feeling, Sam?”

“I’m good, my arm is a little tingly but I’m good,” Sam said as he rubbed at the pins and needles that poked at his forearm.  

“Okay, shall we go again?” Cas asked, reaching toward the timer. Sam and Lexi both sat forward, hands reaching toward the center of the table again as Cas touched the timer once more, then returned his fingers to Lexi’s forehead.

Dean walked into the library and surveyed the scene at the table and snickered as he sat down. “This looks like you all should be singing Kumbaya around a campfire.”

“Shut up, Dean.” Sam glared across the table at his brother, rolling his eyes at the smirk he got in return. Dean remained quiet, though, as the seconds ticked past until the timer went off again and the three separated.

Lexi sat back, a smile spreading across her face as she looked at Sam and she began to giggle quietly to herself.

“What?” Sam asked, his eyes growing wide as a wave of nervousness flowed through him.

“Clowns, Sam? Really?” Lexi laughed out loud, unable to contain it. Dean burst out laughing then, too, tossing his head back and clapping his hands together loudly.

“Alright, alright!” Sam blurted, his face quickly reddening.

“Dude, I told you you’d never live that down!” Dean said, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes.

“Okay, I’m sorry Sam,” Lexi said as she reigned in her amusement. “I’m scared of spiders, okay? You can tease me about that all you want.”

“Damn right I will,” Sam said pointing and glaring over at Lexi, who was still trying to stifle some errant giggles.

“Come on,” Lexi said, sitting forward and reaching her hand across the table. “Let’s keep going.”

The three resumed their positions again, remaining still and quiet for the next sixty seconds as Dean watched over them. The chime sounded and they all broke the connection.

“Dean!” Lexi half-yelled while glaring down the table at him.

“What?!” Dean replied, incredulous and a little shocked to be singled out.

“Nair in the shampoo, dude?” Lexi raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s just rude!”

Sam burst out laughing now, looking at the shocked expression on his brother’s face and watching his mouth flop open and shut like a fish gasping for water.

“You shut up!” Dean spat, pointing at Sam as he felt his face get warm with a blush. He didn’t see the wink Lexi shot at Sam as they began to reach across the table again.

“Do you think you can handle longer?” Cas asked, glancing between Sam and Lexi.

“I’m good,” Lexi said, looking over at Sam.

“Me too, let’s get through this.” Sam replied, nodding.

“Okay, five minutes then.” Cas picked up the phone and adjusted the timer, then returned it to its spot.

The room fell quiet as they started again. Shortly after two minutes had passed, a barely audible whimper broke the silence in the room. The three men turned their attention to Lexi, watching her face closely as another, louder cry came through, her face now tightening in distress.

“Lexi, you okay?” Sam asked.

“She’s not in pain, Sam,” Cas replied. “Keep going.”

Sam watched as her expression seemed to turn to fear and tears began streaming from the corners of her eyes. He was about to pull his hand away when she suddenly wrenched hers quickly from his grasp, her eyes flying open wide with fear, her breathing fast and jagged.

“I think that’s enough for right now,” Lexi said, pushing her chair back and standing in one fluid motion before she turned and ran from the room toward her bedroom, leaving the three men in stunned silence watching after her.

* * *

“Lexi?” Sam knocked gently on the bedroom door as he pushed it open slightly. When he got no response, he pushed the door wide and stepped in, seeing Lexi curled in a ball, arms wrapped tightly around her knees, head buried in the circle of her arms. “Hey, what happened?”

Sam heard a quiet sniffle before she raised her head and wiped quickly at the tears pouring down her cheeks. He was then met with a pillow firmly planted across his face and stumbled backward at the sudden impact.

“You’re a fucking asshole, that’s what happened!” Lexi yelled as she flung the other pillow at Sam, hitting him square in the face again.

“Okay, why?” Sam said, tossing the second pillow aside and taking a step toward Lexi.

“You could have warned me.” Lexi looked up at Sam, tears still streaming from her narrowed eyes.

“About?” Sam asked, his mind racing with the possibilities of what she could have seen to evoke such a strong reaction.

“You get that I don’t just _see_  things, right?” Lexi said, sarcasm oozing through the anger and fear. “I _feel_ things, too.”

“Yeah, I know, I…” Sam’s eyes widened as he realized what part of his life she must have felt. “Oh god...you...you saw hell?”

“I felt it, Sam.” Lexi’s tears began falling faster, her voice shaking and stuttering with short sobs. “Every damn bit of it. From the moment you fell in the pit right up until Cas pulled you out!”

“Lexi…” Sam pulled the armchair next to the bed and slumped down into it, closing his eyes tightly against his own memories. “I’m so sorry. I should have thought…”

“No, Sam, you know what…” Lexi wiped her eyes and took in a long shuddering breath. “Why would you have thought of it? I’m sure you try not to think about it. It just really scared me. I freaked out. Sorry.”

Sam looked up at her, his eyes wet as his own tears threatened to fall. He breathed in a long breath shakily and ran a hand up through his hair, tucking it behind his ear.

“You’re right. I don’t think about it. I keep it buried as deep as I can so I don’t remember.” Sam inhaled deeply again, calming himself, tucking those memories back as much as he could. “I’m sorry you had to go through that. I can understand why you’re freaked out.”

“I’m surprised I’m not more freaked, I mean, not only is hell real, but…” She shuddered against the memory of the images and sensations she’d witnessed. “Is there anything else you’ve been through that’s going to explode my head?”

“Well,” Sam smiled weakly. “That’s the worst of it. But...I died once, stabbed in the back. And I was possessed by an angel once, that wasn’t much fun.”

“Holy crap,” Lexi shook her head watching Sam. “I think it was an understatement when Cas said your life was ‘intense’.”

“Just a little,” Sam chuckled. “So, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I will be, I’m just...well, tired now.” Lexi lowered her eyes to her hands, fidgeting with her fingernail. “I...kinda wish I could hug you, though.”

“Well,” Sam laughed, feeling his face flush. “Hopefully it won’t be much longer till this is all done.”

“Yeah,” Lexi said with a sigh. “But no more tonight.”


	4. Chapter 4

Lexi flopped over in the bed with a loud sigh, her eyes popping open again. As tired as she was it was frustrating to not be able to fall asleep, but she couldn’t stop thinking about everything that had been going on. From the time she’d bumped into Sam back at the convenience store nothing that had happened seemed real. She was a Guardian, she believed it to be true with all the things she’d seen through Sam. But she didn’t quite know what that really meant for her. All the things she used to laugh at in horror films were real;  _ that  _ she didn’t quite believe yet. Angels and demons, heaven and hell...all real. Lexi shuddered against the images even thinking the word ‘hell’ brought to her mind. 

She stared at the line of light coming in the room from under the door, the hallway lights still on, and focused on pushing the images out of the forefront of her thoughts. She startled as the warm yellow light began to shift, turning deeper in color, through orange and finally glowing red. A shiver ran up her spine as the blood pumping throughout her body seemed to turn to a sluggishly moving ice. 

“Sam?” Lexi called as she slowly pushed the covers back, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. “Dean?”

She stood cautiously, her eyes glued to the band of red light in front of her. Slowly stepping forward, one bare foot in front of the other she made her way to the door. A high-pitched gasp forced up from her throat as a metallic clang echoed through the room from behind her. She spun around to see a large chain hanging from the ceiling on the other side of the bed. Dozens more dropped down in an instant, swaying and clanging into each other filling the room with the metallic sound, punctuated by a screeching that reminded her of playground swings as they pulled and ebbed against the weight of a child. 

Lexi turned quickly, grasping the doorknob, turning and pulling in one smooth motion, only to find the door stuck in place. A wave of fear rushed through her as she slapped at the door, pulling on the knob with her other hand. Her breath came in short gasps, her heart pounding against her ribcage as panic took over. The clanging of the chains grew louder in her ears and she looked back into the room to see the same red light from the hallway had appeared in the bedroom, growing brighter as her panic took hold. 

Beyond the clanging and squealing of the chains and the fear-laden gasps that emanated from her throat with each rapid breath Lexi began to make out a voice. It was distant, a word drawn out in a sing-song tone, repeated over and over. 

“Leeeeeexiiiii…Leeexiiiiiiiiii…”

She turned back to the door, trying desperately one more time to open it, wanting nothing more than the comfort of another person at that moment. When it still wouldn’t budge and the voice began to grow closer, louder against the incessant clanging, the panic finally took over, Lexi grasped her hands over her ears, slid down the door to the floor and let the scream in the pit of her stomach force its way up past her throat and lips.

“Nooooooooooooooooooooo!”

Lexi let go of her ears and let her eyes open part way and drew in a sharp breath when she saw the room around her dark except for the soft yellow glow from the hall lights under the door. She found herself tangled in her blankets, her shirt stuck to her back with sweat, her hands shaking uncontrollably. She blew out a breath through pursed lips, slowly, pushing the fear out with it. 

“A dream,” she whispered, drawing in another long slow breath. “It was just a dream.”

* * *

Dean and Sam sat at the table in the kitchen, talking quietly while both picked at their bowls of chili. After Sam had told them why Lexi had bolted from the room, Cas had left, promising to return once she was up for another session of Sam-download. The brothers had been discussing how they would deal with the whole situation of having another person in their world while Lexi slept. 

“Man she seems pretty bad ass, but I don’t know,” Dean said, lifting up a spoonful of now-cold chili then plopping it back the bowl. “I just don’t know if any amount training is going to keep her safe. I mean, she’s tiny...kinda like you were at twelve.” 

“Shut up.” Sam rolled his eyes and slid his half-empty bowl off to the side of the table. “We still need to train her. Whether it keeps her completely safe or not, she’ll be safer with training than without. We have to do what we can. And it’s not like we have a choice here.” 

“I know, Sam. It just sucks.” Dean leaned back, putting his hands on top of his head, elbows splayed out like wings. “This whole situation sucks, start to finish.” 

“It sucks not having a choice, I agree. But I don’t know, man, I’m kind of growing to like her.” Sam shrugged, glancing down at the table and scraping at a dried up bit of food with his fingernail.

“Oooooh...Sammy has the hots for his guardian, huh?” Dean teased, smirking. “Pretty kinky, little brother.” 

“Dean, come on…”

“Nooooooooooooooooooooo!” Lexi’s scream echoed into the kitchen, sending both men instantly to their feet. They ran at full speed through the hallways until they reached Lexi’s door. Both had their guns drawn and cocked as Sam pushed through the door and into the room, the light from the hall flowing in to reveal a curled-up, sweat-soaked and trembling Lexi on the bed. After a quick survey of the room revealed no threat, Sam dropped his gun on the dresser and headed for her, arms outstretched, only to stop himself with a frustrated sigh when he realized he couldn’t go to her, couldn’t comfort her. He glanced back at Dean helplessly and watched as his brother tucked his gun back in his waistband and went to the bed in his place. 

“Lexi, what happened?” Sam asked as he kneeled beside the bed, tilting his head to try to get a look at her face. Dean placed an arm around her shoulders and she leaned in to him, desperately needing the comfort. One last violent shudder waved through her body before she looked up at Sam. 

“It was a dream. Just a dream, I’m sorry.” Lexi inhaled shakily and wiped at the streaks of tears that once again lined her face.  

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ve dealt with a lot of nightmares around here,” Dean soothed, running his hand slowly across her back trying to calm the tremors he could still feel under the surface.

“What was it about?” Sam asked, although he was pretty certain he already knew the answer.

“I woke up,” Lexi started, pausing to choke back a sob. “In here, and there was this red light. Chains came down from the ceiling and made this awful noise. And this voice…”

“It’s okay, Lexi,” Sam encouraged when he saw the trembling in her arms ramp up again, more tears threatening to overflow her eyes. “We’re right here.” 

“The voice, it was just calling my name, but…” A fresh sob hiccuped out as Dean wrapped his arm around her shoulders again, pulling her tight against his side. “It was mocking and almost singing and...I swear it was evil.” 

Lexi broke down again, letting the tears and sobs come freely as Dean pulled her into a full-on hug, wrapping both arms around her. She turned in to the embrace, burying her face in Dean’s chest and wrapping her arms around him, her hands grasping at the back of his shirt. Dean looked over her head at his brother, giving him a slight nod to let him know he understood what her dream was about, too. 

Sam sat and watched, helpless, as his brother held her, whispering the soothing sounds he remembered so well from his childhood while she cried out all the terror from her shaking body. He watched, his heart breaking for her, as his brother rocked her ever so slightly until her sobs slowed to occasional hiccups, her trembling slowed to a barely perceptible shiver and she began to take in long, slow breaths. She finally pulled away from the strong arms that held her. 

“I’m so sorry,” Sam said when Lexi looked down at him while wiping her eyes, his own eyes filled with unshed tears. “That was hell.” 

Lexi’s eyes grew wide as she registered Sam’s words, then narrowed into confusion. 

“But, he was saying my name. If it was your memory of hell, how could the voice know…”

“Because it was just a dream. Wasn’t real, kiddo,” Dean said, his arm still resting around her shoulders. He felt her relax again, realizing her own brain had been getting creative with Sam’s memories. “And dude, you are soaked with sweat, that’s gross!”

She let out a short giggle as Dean made a show of removing his arm and wiping it off.

“Well, we still didn’t get me any clothes.” Lexi tugged at the damp t-shirt, fanning it away from her skin. “I’m really going to be ripe now.” 

“Oh crap, hang on,” Sam said as he jumped up and darted from the room. He returned a minute later with a t-shirt and a pair of drawstring gym shorts, tossing them on the bed next to Lexi. “You’ll swim in them, but at least we can wash what you have. I promise we’ll go out in the morning and get you some clothes.” 

“Thanks. Both of you.” Lexi smiled at both of them as she picked up the huge clothes and stood to head to the bathroom to change. “Hey, I’m hungry...do you have any pie?” 

* * *

“We should get Cas back here and finish the download thing,” Lexi said, then put another forkful of apple pie in her mouth. Dean sat across from her at the kitchen table savoring his own mouthful of pie while Sam was pouring cups of coffee. “I really want to get it over with.” 

“It’ll certainly make things easier once it’s over with,” Sam agreed as he set a mug in front of Lexi and his brother, then took a seat. “Dean, you want to call him?”

“M’eating pie!” Dean said, his mouth full. He glanced over at Sam to see the half-bitchface, half-puppy eyed look on his face. He rolled his eyes then swallowed. “Fine. Castiel...we’re ready for more weirdness, come on down.” 

“Hello Dean, Sam, Lexi…” Cas’s face contorted into a look of confusion when he saw Lexi sitting there in a t-shirt that seemed to barely stay on her shoulders. “What are you wearing?” 

“Cas you know that’s dirty question, right?” Dean grinned. 

Sam and Lexi both turned a quick glare at Dean, who shrugged and returned to his pie. 

“Sam’s clothes,” Lexi explained. “All mine are back in Maryland and we haven’t gotten out to buy more yet.” 

“I can take you and Sam to your house so you can get your things,” Cas offered nonchalantly. 

“Wait, what?” Lexi’s eyes grew wide, staring up at the angel. “You mean...fly?”

“Yes. But Sam would have to come, or you would just transport back here.”

“You’ll barely feel it,” Sam added. “It’s weird at first, but you’ll get used to it.” 

"Like there’s anything in my life that  _ isn’t  _ weird right now.” Lexi said with a light chuckle, then scooped her last bite of pie into her mouth, swallowing it down quickly. “So, can we do this?” 

The four of them moved to the library, each taking their seats at one of the tables. They resumed their positions from earlier, Sam and Lexi with their arms stretched across the table, Cas reaching over to Lexi’s forehead while Dean looked on. For the next half hour they worked at continuing to transfer Sam’s life to Lexi in intervals of five minutes, the three men carefully watching Lexi for any signs of distress. The time passed incident free with the exception of a few soft whimpers as Lexi had to endure some of Sam’s more serious injuries from past years. It was halfway through one of the five-minute intervals when Sam suddenly let out a yelp and ripped his hand away. 

“Son of a bitch!” Sam said, shaking his hand vigorously.

“What happened?” Dean asked, half rising from his chair. 

“A shock just went down my arm and out my hand.” Sam rubbed at his right hand with his left, massaging his fingers. “That sucked.” 

“I would assume that’s the end,” Cas said. “Try touching each other and see what happens.” 

Sam reached his hand back across the table, locking eyes with Lexi. Cas kept his hand at the ready above her head watching carefully as their fingers met. A wide smile crossed Lexi’s face as nothing happened. 

“Well, holy crap...I’m glad  _ that’s  _ over!” Lexi said, jumping up from the table and practically running around it to Sam. She leaned over and wrapped her arms around him, pulling him into a tight hug. Sam let out a chuckle as he slid his arms around her returning the embrace. 

“Me too,” Sam said as he pulled his arms away. “How about we go get your things now?” 

* * *

Sam and Lexi appeared, Cas between them with his hands on each of their shoulders, in the middle of Lexi’s small living room. Lexi stumbled briefly forward but quickly regained her balance then looked around at the familiar surroundings. 

“Okay yeah, that’s definitely weird.” Lexi shook her head briefly, regaining her bearings. 

“You okay?” Sam asked with a smile. 

“Yup, I’m good.” Lexi headed toward the bedroom door across the room. “Make yourselves comfortable, I won’t be long.” 

She pushed open the door to the bedroom flipping the light switch on the wall as she walked through. She went to the closet and pulled out a large gym bag and tossed it on the unmade bed. She turned to the dresser and opened a drawer, pulling out a pile of clothes. Turning back to the bed she stopped short as she glanced up to the wall by the window. 

Leaning against the window, arms crossed, one foot crossed over the opposite leg, was a tall, blonde haired man watching Lexi with a nearly maniacal smirk. 

“Who the hell are you?” Lexi yelled, dropping the pile of clothes and backing up toward the door. A second later Sam was behind her, grasping her shoulders and pushing her out of the room as he barged in, his gun held firmly in front of him, scanning the room.

“Lexi?” Sam said, surveying the room again as his gun lowered slightly. “There’s no one here.” 

“What?” Lexi pushed her head past Sam’s arm, remaining behind him, and looked over to the wall. “There...there was a man...right over there!” 

Lexi backed out of the room again then sank down onto the couch running both shaking hands up through her hair, letting out a trembling breath. 

Sam and Cas moved back to the living room, Sam sliding onto the coffee table in front of Lexi as he cast a concerned look up at Cas standing next to the couch. 

“Lexi, what did he look like?” Sam asked. 

“Umm...tall, short blonde hair,” Lexi answered, voice shaking. “He was leaning against the wall just...smirking at me.” 

“What about his eyes?” Sam said, placing a comforting hand on Lexi’s shoulder. “Did he have black eyes?”

“No,” Lexi looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears. “Blue I think.”

Sam shot another concerned look up at Cas before pulling out his phone and typing something into the web browser. He pulled up a photo, then turned the phone around to show Lexi.

“Was this him?” Sam asked. His veins filled with ice as he saw Lexi’s eyes grow wide when she looked at the photo and nodded. Sam held the phone up to Cas and watched as his eyes, too, grew wide. “Lucifer.” 


	5. Chapter 5

He watched the scene in the small apartment play out before him while idly scratching at his beard. The fear that ricocheted between the angel, the hunter and the guardian was tangible, leaving a bitter taste in his mouth as he took it all in. His own heart sank to the pit of his stomach as he realized the one thing he was hoping wouldn’t happen was indeed happening. 

He’d been carefully observing them ever since the angel decided to help the transition to full guardianship. His fear that the connection Castiel and Sam Winchester had shared would be transferred to Lexi was now confirmed. Lucifer had indeed caught wind of the circumstance and had jumped at the opportunity to weasel his way back into the life of Sam. This time through his guardian, a good woman who didn’t deserve any of what was sure to now happen to her. Had it been any other angel, any other but Cas who had taken the burden of Lucifer from Sam, this never would have been possible. But Lucifer was smart and more than anything, he knew how to manipulate people, angels, and their connections.  

The only question now was whether to intervene or let things play out. He sat back, pondering the possible outcomes of both courses of action, and decided that for now, he need do nothing more than continue to watch vigilantly. 

 

* * *

“Dean, I said I don’t know...that means I. Don’t. Know.” Sam huffed out a breath, irritated, as he paced the floor of the kitchen while Dean sat at the table glaring at him. “All I know is that Lexi saw Lucifer, and when I got to the room he was gone. None of us know if he was really there or if he was just in her head.”

“And where the hell is Cas?” Dean spat, not at all happy with the new turn of events. Lexi dreaming about hell was one thing, it was even to be expected. But having hallucinations brought back too many memories of Sam struggling to keep a grip on what was real. It left him holding back shudders of fear. 

“He went to Stull. To check the cage.” Sam stopped mid-pace and brushed his fingers through his hair, stopping his hand at the crown of his skull as he twisted and stretched his neck against the tightness that wouldn’t let go. “This is so not good.” 

“Sam, try to relax, man,” Dean said, letting go of the tense anger that had him riled up since his brother, Cas and Lexi had popped back in from Maryland, Lexi immediately walking away from them with her bags and Cas disappearing again without a word, leaving Sam to relay the events of their seemingly simple clothing mission. “Cas will be able to tell if he’s out of the cage, and if he’s just in her head, well...it’s not like we haven’t dealt with it before.” 

“That’s just it, Dean,” Sam said quietly as he flopped down into the chair across from his brother. “I’ve dealt with this before. And no one should have to go through that. Especially not someone who had no choice in the matter. At least when it was me, it was my own damn fault for letting Lucifer out in the first place.” 

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Dean said, sitting up straighter and reaching across the table to place a comforting hand on Sam’s forearm. “None of this is your fault. Don’t go starting the guilt game again.” 

“Why not? It’s the truth.” Sam looked up at his brother, his eyes growing wet, resisting the urge to pull his arm away from the comforting touch he didn’t deserve. “It is all my fault, all of this is because of my stupid choices and if anything happens to Lexi because of it that’s on me, too.”

“It’s no one’s fault, Sam,” Lexi said quietly from the door of the kitchen. Both Sam and Dean whipped their heads around to watch as she quietly made her way into the room, stopping beside Sam and resting a hand lightly on his shoulder. “The things you did, they weren’t your choices to make. You never could have done anything to stop them from happening.” 

“What do you mean?” Dean looked up at her, slightly confused. “Destiny?” 

“Yes. Destiny.” Lexi slid her hand across Sam’s shoulder to gently squeeze the back of his neck as she felt the soft shudder as his breath hitched at her words. “I don’t know how I know, but all of it, your visions, the demon blood, opening Lucifer’s cage and throwing him back in...there was nothing anyone or anything could have done about all of that happening. One way or another it all would have played out.” 

Sam dropped his head to his arms crossed in front of him on the table as a sob escaped his throat. There was no holding back the tears as the knot of guilt that had lived at his core for so many years suddenly unravelled and poured from his eyes in a steady stream of salty drops. In an instant Sam was embraced by both his brother and Lexi, both holding him tight, keeping him safe as he let the vulnerability of release pass through him. 

* * *

Lexi woke with a start, flying up to a sitting position, her eyes wide seeing the now familiar red light enveloping the room. She glanced around to notice there were no chains this time, but the air in the room felt oppressive. Not hot, but thick like a summer day riddled with humidity. With a groan she flopped back on the bed and swooped the comforter up over her head to block out the eerie scene.

“Lexi, you know it’s not that easy to hide from me,” came the saccharine, sarcastic voice of Lucifer from inches away from her ear. 

It had been a week since the first nightmare. She still called them nightmares, even though she wasn’t quite sure if she was awake or asleep. But nearly every night she woke to the red light accompanied by chains or other equally gruesome-looking scenes, or to Lucifer himself talking to her in that snarky tone. She had only seen Lucifer one other time after her apartment in Maryland, when she and Sam had ventured out to the grocery store and she turned a corner to find him laying across a bin of potatoes in the produce section. After much discussion between Cas, Sam and Dean, they decided it was the protections built into the bunker that kept him from manifesting inside it. But seeing him or not, he was wreaking havoc with Lexi nonetheless. She barely slept and had the black swatches under her eyes to prove it. 

“Go back to hell, you smarmy dick.” Lexi spoke from under the blanket, her voice dripping with irritation. Lack of sleep shortened her fuse.

“Aww, is that any way to talk to your new best friend?” Lucifer cooed at her. “I’m offended.” 

Outside of the blanket Lexi heard banging and clunking, heavy objects sliding across the floor. She slowly sat up and tugged the blanket down from her head to see that the room had been transformed into what looked like a dungeon. The plaster walls were now stone, wet and dripping with condensation. Chains hung from the ceiling and walls, some with sharp hooks, some with manacles. Braziers stood in each of the corners with knives and iron rods heating in them. And a putrid scent of rotted meat, maybe flesh, permeated the entire scene. 

“What the fu…” Lexi whispered.

“You see, Lexi, you and I both know I  _ am  _ really in hell. But it will never really, truly keep me contained.” Lucifer spat the words into Lexi’s ear. “I’m far too strong for that.” 

A cold panic was rising from her stomach as Lexi noticed her heart begin to quicken, a chill run through her body and a deep trembling erupting through her limbs. Her eyes welled up as her breath caught in her throat. She tore the covers off herself and bolted for the door, only to find it once again locked and immoveable. 

“You can’t get away from me Lexi,” Lucifer taunted, his voice still across the room. “You can’t hide, you can’t send me away. And sooner or later, your buddy Sam is going to figure out how to let me back into his head. Poor sap is out there right now researching it, just so he can save you. And you know that’s what I really want.” 

Lexi’s panic reached its crescendo and she started pounding desperately on the door to either get it to move or alert Sam or Dean to her distress. She tried to scream out for them but her voice just stuck in the back of her throat.

“Go ahead, get Sam in here. Tell him I want him back. You know he’ll do it for you. Then this will all go away. Go on. Give me what I want, Lexi.” He laughed as Lexi continued to pound on the door, his voice rising until it became a cackle, then fading into the distance as the light faded around her, the room shimmered back to it’s normal visage and the door let loose. 

Lexi ripped the door open and stumbled out into the hall, pushing her panicked limbs forward until she ran full-on into Sam, his arms catching her around the shoulders and steadying her from losing her balance from the impact. 

“Hey, hey...Lexi you’re okay,” Sam soothed when he saw the tears flowing from her eyes and felt the full-bodied trembling under his hands. “You’re safe, Lexi, you’re safe.” 


	6. Chapter 6

Dean walked into the gun range and stood behind Lexi and Sam. Sam was teaching Lexi to shoot, and judging from the groupings on the targets across the room, she was a natural. He watched as Sam gently made a few minor adjustments to her grip on the pistol and she began to empty the clip at the target. 

“Hey guys,” Dean interrupted as Lexi released the empty clip and Sam slid a fresh one over to her. “Found a job.” 

“Oh yeah, whatcha got?” Sam asked, reaching for the papers Dean held out to him. 

“Haunting up in Oregon,” Dean said. “Should be a simple salt and burn, no big deal, but I’m dying to get on the road for a while.” 

“How about it, Lexi?” Sam looked over at her, the pitch of his voice raising slightly with the excitement of a trip and a hunt. “You ready for your first hunt?” 

“Um...y-yeah, I guess,” Lexi said, trying to keep the tremble from her voice. “Road trip, yeah.” 

“You’re scared.” Dean stated. “What’s up?”

“It’s just...leaving the bunker…”

“Lucifer. The protection won’t keep him away,” Sam said. “He can’t physically hurt you, Lexi. I promise. You’ll be fine.” 

“He’s right,” Dean said, laying a hand gently on her shoulder and giving it a soft squeeze. “Sammy would have been toast a long time ago if he could really do any damage.” 

“Well,” Lexi said, looking back and forth between two sets of hopefully, almost pleading eyes. “Okay. Let’s do it. I’ve never been to Oregon.” 

“Alright...atta girl!” Dean clapped her shoulder lightly as he turned and half-ran out of the room to pack with Sam close at his heels. Lexi stood watching after them with a feeling of unease spiralling up through her. 

* * *

He visibly tensed, one hand absently tugging at the whiskers on his chin, as he watched the two hunters hurriedly preparing to leave the safety of the bunker. The warding and protections were the only thing blocking Lucifer from making a full move right now. He turned his attention to Lexi, watching as the foreboding flooded through her, darkening her image slightly.

He wracked his brain for a quick way to divert this hunt, mentally kicking himself for not making preparations for this inevitable excursion sooner. He was out of practice with meddling and his timing was off. He sighed loudly when he realized there was nothing he could do to deter them. He’d just have to be vigilant in his watching and do what he could to derail Lucifer’s actions. 

* * *

Lexi groaned softly when she woke to the sound of the Impala’s rumbling engine cutting off. She felt the rush of cool air and the vibration of the driver’s door slamming shut again as Dean got out. Rubbing her eyes with the heel of her thumb she sat up and looked around, trying to get her bearings.

“We’re about halfway across Colorado,” Sam said as he looked back and saw her sleepily looking around. “Dean’s getting snacks...of course.” 

“Okay,” Lexi replied through a yawn, shifting to sit up properly in the seat behind Dean’s. “Sam, can I ask you something?” 

“Sure,” Sam said, turning so his back was against the passenger door and he could face her. 

“Are you trying to find a way to let Lucifer back in your head?” She watched as Sam’s face dropped, the color draining while his mouth flopped open as if to speak but the words weren’t there to come out. “Lucifer told me. He said you were researching how to do it, and I wanted to know if he really knew.” 

“I am researching it,” Sam said, turning his head to look out the windshield. “It’s my burden, you don’t deserve that.” 

“Sam…”

“No, Lexi, you’re not going to talk me out of it.” Sam shifted in his seat again, facing front. “I’ve dealt with it before, I can do it again.” 

“It’s what he wants, Sam.” Lexi startled slightly as Sam whipped his head around to stare her in the eyes. “He told me. That’s why he’s doing this to me. He’s trying to get to you.” 

“How?” Sam said, his voice coming out barely above a whisper.

“No idea. He says he strong enough to do it on his own.” Lexi shrugged, looking down at her sneakers as she noticed a slight electric tingle wave through her. “We can’t let him do it. It’s going to be bad if he does. It can’t happen.” 

“Lexi?” Sam tilted his head to get a look at her eyes, concerned at the way her voice had suddenly dropped most of it’s intonation, like she’d slipped into a trance. “Hey, you okay?” 

“What?” Lexi shuddered, suddenly realizing she’d been in a fog for a few seconds. She reached up to idly rub at her temple. “I’m fine. Just a headache.” 

“Did you...Lexi did you just have a premonition?” Sam asked, reaching over the seat to grab her hand, his eyes glued to hers, laced with worry.

“I think...so.” 

“We’ve got road snacks!” The driver’s door flew open and Dean swooped into his seat with a rustle of plastic bags and cool, fresh air that filled the car. Dean tossed one bag onto his brother’s lap and began rifling through another on his own, only stopping when the silence in the car seemed to startle him to attention. He looked across at his brother, then at Lexi in the rearview mirror. “What? Did I interrupt a lover’s quarrel or something?” 

“Dean,” Sam said, pausing to take a deep breath. “Lexi had a vision.” 

“Oh.” Dean looked in the mirror again, looking for the telltale signs of a raging headache he associated with visions. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Lexi said, meeting Dean’s green eyes in the mirror then turning her head to catch Sam’s hazel eyes. “I’m good.”

“What’d you see?” Dean asked, glancing again between Lexi and his brother.

“Lucifer is trying to get to me.” Sam turned his head to look out the passenger window as he spoke, not wanting to see his brother’s face cross with anger. 

“Son of a bitch!” 

* * *

“Motel, crappy motel,” Dean said as he pulled the car to a stop in front of the office. “Let’s hope they have two rooms next to each other.”

“Two?” Lexi piped up from the back seat. “Why two? It’s cheaper to get a cot in a double room...I’m small enough, I’ll fit on a cot.” 

Sam turned around to see Lexi sitting there, wringing her hands with an unmistakably panicked expression on her face. He knew the visions of hell almost always hit her at night, and although it hadn’t happened yet, without the warding of the bunker, they were all just waiting for Lucifer to show up in all his glory. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to spend the night alone. 

“Yeah, Dean, just get a cot, okay?” Sam raised his eyebrows at his brother, willing him to get the non-verbal hint. 

“Okay, a double and a cot.” Dean snorted with irritation. “I didn’t want a hot shower anyway.” 

The three filed into the dingy room, each with their own bag, Sam with their weapons bag slung over his shoulder as well. Dean flung his bag on the first bed and headed to the bathroom as Sam set his duffel on the second, watching as Lexi slid into a chair at the table in the corner and started picking at the chipped, wood-grain laminate. 

“You doing alright?” Sam asked. 

“Fine,” Lexi answered, her gaze intent on the table top. 

“I know you’re scared, Lexi,” Sam said as he slipped into the chair next to her. “But I promise, Dean and I will do everything we can to keep you safe.” 

“Yeah, I know…” Lexi looked up at Sam and forced a half-smile to cross her face. She let out a short laugh. “I’m supposed to be the guardian, and I’m the one who’s scared shitless.” 

“Well, I think we’re giving this whole guardian thing a run for it’s money,” Sam smiled back at her, reaching across the table to lay his hand over hers. 

“It’s the Winchester way!” Dean blurted as he crossed the room from the bathroom to flop down on the bed. Sam and Lexi both rolled their eyes at him. Just then a knock echoed through the room from the door. “That’s the cot...finally, we can get some shut-eye!” 

The room buzzed with activity then as the three bustled around setting up the cot, laying salt lines at the door and window and taking turns changing in the bathroom. In just twenty minutes they were all settled into their beds with the lights out and silence falling over the room again. 

Two hours had passed and Lexi was no closer to falling asleep. Her head still ached after the vision she’d had earlier, and her nerves were so ramped up her muscles ached. She listened to the even breathing of the two brothers, trying to focus on the soft sound and let it lull her into rest. A few more tosses and turns on the creaky cot that caused stirrings across the room and she decided to give up for the time being. She grabbed her discarded clothes and quietly shut the bathroom door before turning on the light and dressing. She figured a walk in the fresh night air might settle her enough to sleep. She scribbled a quick note on the motel stationery by the dim light that poked in from the parking lot and slipped quietly out the door. 

She’d walked about a mile when she came across a convenience store and ducked in to see if they had any herbal tea. The pimply-faced cashier glanced up as she made her way across the store and started filling a cup with hot water. She gasped slightly as she looked up from setting the cup on the counter by the register, only to find the cashier who’d been idly leafing through a comic book was now the smirking visage of Lucifer, just as she’d seen in her apartment. 

“You didn’t think I’d left you, did you Lexi?” He rounded the counter and started walking quickly toward her as she backed away from the counter. “I’m not that easy to get rid of.” 

Lexi turned and ran toward the door, Lucifer’s laughter following after her. As she pushed through the glass door she turned back to see if he was following, only to find the original cashier, still behind the counter, staring after her gape-mouthed with his comic book still in his hands. Choking back a sob, Lexi turned back and continued running across the parking lot to the sidewalk. She picked up speed as the path in front of her straightened and she tried to put as much distance as possible between herself and the store. Her breath quickly started coming out in huffed bursts as she focused on the sound of her feet striking the pavement one after the other until she finally had to slow and then stop, not able to continue any further. She bent down with her hands to her knees as she tried to slow her labored breath. After several minutes she could breathe normally again, and she stood to look around. Another wave of panic shot through her as she realized she’d gotten herself turned around and wasn’t sure which way the motel was. 

“Crap.” Lexi replayed her walk and her midnight run in her head, trying to get her bearings. When she was fairly certain she knew which direction she’d come from she started walking again, only to have her vision suddenly flash bright white. A somewhat familiar sensation of electricity flew through her, washing out from her center to flow out from her hands, feet and head. The white flash seemed to suck itself back into her and she felt her body go back to normal, only laying down on a soft surface. She quickly looked around and found she was back in the motel room, with Sam stirring from sleep next to her. 

“What the fuck?” Sam yelled sleepily as he shot up to a sitting position, his hand whipping out from under his pillow holding his gun, his eyes darting around quickly until he landed on a stunned Lexi laying next to him. “Lexi?” 

“Oh god…” Lexi said, slapping her hand over her eyes. A grumble sounded from the next bed as Dean reached over and turned on the nightstand light. “Ummm…”

Lexi could feel the red rising from her neck to her face, as both Sam and Dean sat, wide eyed, staring at her. 

“Lexi, what are you doing?” Sam asked, tucking his gun back under his pillow. 

“I went for a walk,” Lexi answered, peeking out between her fingers. “I guess I went too far?” 

“Son of a bitch,” Dean said as he flopped back onto his pillow. “THIS is why we needed two rooms!”


	7. Chapter 7

Early morning light streamed through the crack in the curtain casting a soft glow in the room as Dean busied himself re-packing his duffel while Sam was in the shower. Lexi sat on the cot brushing out her still-wet hair. 

“Hey, so what happened last night?” Dean asked as he rolled up his dirty jeans from yesterday and tucked them into his bag. 

“I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a walk. Sometimes helps,” Lexi answered distractedly, not even looking over at Dean. 

“How did you walk far enough to get yourself zapped back, though?” 

“I...well, I ran for a while…” Lexi stopped brushing her hair and considered Dean’s question for a minute. “No way I went five miles though. Didn’t Cas say five?” 

“Yeah, he did,” Dean said, sitting on the end of the bed. “Wait, you ran?”

“Got spooked, so I took off.” Lexi shrugged, hiding the slight shudder and went back to brushing.

“By?” Dean stared directly at her, trying to catch her eyes.

“Three guesses and the first two don’t count.” Lexi returned his stare and watched a flash of anger cross his eyes.

“So he did show up.” Dean dropped his shoulders, letting the defeat wash over him. “Took him long enough.” 

“Hey, one thing I never understood...I know Cas took the Lucifer-vision from Sam, but how did Cas get rid of it?” 

“We have no idea, never did figured that one out. But, Cas was off his rocker for a while from it.” Dean scrubbed a hand through his hair absently. “If Lucifer told you he has control over who he’s in, I’d guess he just left on his own. But, that doesn’t explain why he needs you to get back to Sam. Doesn’t make sense. I’m sure there’s some angelic rule we don’t know about.”

“Huh. Yeah, that doesn’t make sense.” Lexi dropped her brush into her open bag on the floor next to the bed. “Maybe I can ask him. I know he wouldn’t answer a direct question, but maybe I can get it out of him somehow.”

“Nuh-uh, no way, Lexi,” Sam said as he crossed the room pulling a flannel up over his shoulders. “Don’t even talk to him.” 

“But if we figure out the rules, how he’s doing what he’s doing, we can stop him from getting to you,” Lexi replied, her voice raising slightly in defense. “It might be the only way we fix this.”

“Yeah, and the more you talk to him the stronger his hold on you gets,” Sam said calmly, sitting on the edge of cot. “That’s how he kept me awake for a week straight, I made the mistake of letting him in just by talking to him. Just ignore him. I mean it.”

“So it’s fine for you to want to practically invite him in?” Lexi’s voice was getting louder now, her brow furrowing as anger rose. “But I can’t even try to get some information out of him when he’s already here?”

“Yup.” Sam crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Lexi. 

“You’re an ass, Sam.” Lexi shoved off the cot and quickly crossed the room to the bathroom, casting a glare back at Sam before slamming the door. 

“She may have a point, Sam.” Dean stood and resumed packing his bag. “It might be our only shot.” 

“Oh don’t start, Dean,” Sam said as he crossed the room to start packing his own duffel. “I’m not letting her risk what I went through.”

“So what should we do? Round two of you and Lucifer battling inside  _ your _ head?” Dean stepped over to the middle of the two beds, planting his feet firmly in place. “Because that went  _ so _ well last time.” 

“I get it, Dean, okay? I’ll stop trying to find a way to let him in.” Sam chucked a wadded up t-shirt into his bag with a sigh. “But I’m not going to sit around and let her get hurt. She’s done nothing to deserve that. She’s done nothing to deserve any of this.” 

“Sam, it sucks, I know,” Dean said, walking up to his brother and putting a hand on his shoulder. “She doesn’t deserve it, but it’s what’s on our plate right now. And it’s not your fault, okay? None of it.” 

“Yeah, I know.” Sam sighed, letting his shoulders drop as Dean gave him a gentle pat to the side of his neck. 

“Okay. Now let’s get the hell out of here,” Dean said with a smirk. “We’ve still got a ghost to gank.” 

* * *

“Man, Lexi is pissed we found a motel so close to the haunting. I think she really wanted to come along,” Dean chuckled as he remembered her red-faced rant about sitting on her ass watching soap-operas and eating bon-bons.

“Yeah, she kind of reminded me of you at twelve years old when Dad made you stay back with me,” Sam laughed and ducked Dean’s swing as they walked up the overgrown path to the old Victorian on the outskirts of town, both men with their salt-loaded shotguns tucked under their arms. The spirit, Victoria Randall, was supposedly buried in the basement after her husband had murdered her when he’d found out about her affair. It was the same story as so many of the hauntings they’d stopped before. 

They approached the back of the run-down, abandoned house, quickly jimmied the door open and headed for the cellar stairs off the kitchen. Half-way down, the dank stairwell was suddenly filled with a flash of bright, white light for several seconds, revealing a stunned Lexi standing on a stair between them when it receded. 

“Oh, come on!” Dean shouted when he realized what had happened.

“Okay, I think it’s safe to say we don’t have a five mile radius here,” Lexi said as she steadied herself on the step. 

“Great, the one time Cas is totally wrong on something.” Sam said with a slight eye-roll. “Okay, let’s get Lexi out to the car and out of harm’s way.” 

Both men turned on the stairs, Sam giving Lexi a slight push as she groaned her frustration at being excluded like a child again. They made their way back up into the kitchen, Sam and Dean on either side of Lexi, protectively, with shotguns at the ready. As they stepped into the empty, open kitchen space all three noticed the drastic chill and their breath clouding out into the air. 

“Lexi, stay behind me,” Sam said as he pulled her to his back, raising his gun and scanning the room. Both men rotated back and forth over the room, waiting for the spirit to appear. Lexi let out a gasping yelp as she thumped to the floor and Sam and Dean spun instantly to face her. The spirit was pinning her down and dragging a small knife across her inner forearm, bright red blood flowing in all directions. Lexi screamed and kicked trying to push the ghost off her when the blast from Sam’s shotgun echoed through the kitchen, dissipating the spirit and leaving nothing but grains of salt to rain down to the floor over the gasping woman. 

“Let’s get her out of here now,” Dean said, reaching down to pull Lexi to standing as Sam flung the door open. Dean half-dragged a trembling Lexi out the door, and all three ran down the weed-covered path back to the Impala. Sam unlocked the back passenger door as Dean led Lexi to sit, kneeling down in front of her. “You okay?” 

Lexi nodded shakily as Dean pulled her injured arm closer. Sam knelt down beside him after grabbing the first aid kit from the trunk, handing over a wad of gauze. Dean gently placed the material against her arm, applying pressure to stop the flow of blood. After several minutes he let up and started to pull the gauze away.

“Okay let’s see what we have here,” Dean said, looking up into Lexi’s face, noticing her wet eyes and pale color. He looked down at the wound and his breath caught in his throat. “Dude, do you see this?”

Sam peered over at the arm clutched in Dean’s hand and felt an icy wave rush through him. There on her arm, in neat handwriting, was an address: 9 West Street, Boston.

* * *

He watched nervously as the two hunters exited the motel room in search of a spirit, leaving the guardian by herself. In his peripheral vision he could see Lucifer, pulling his strength together in preparation. The amount of power he was gathering could only mean he was gearing up to unleash something particularly nasty this time. He would know the hunters would be otherwise occupied for some time, he’d probably been waiting for just such an opportunity.

With a quick tug at his beard he decided it was time to intervene fully now. He focused in on the spirit in the house the hunters were aimed for, and locked into her energy. When he could clearly see the silver band connecting the soul to himself, he turned his attention back to the guardian. With a curt nod, he sent the wave of energy that would trigger her physically snapping back to her charge, just as he’d done the previous night. He followed the wave of her particles across the short mile, and watched them reassemble next to the hunter. 

He let a satisfied grin cross his face as he saw the hunters quickly ushering the guardian toward the door, as expected. A quick tug on the silver cord connecting him to the errant soul sent it toward the guardian. Not wanting to cause her true harm, even though the fear was unavoidable, he sent his message down through the soul knowing the three of them would surely find the meaning with no problem. 

* * *

“Why the fuck is there an address carved into my arm?” Lexi shouted, pulling her trembling arm from Dean’s grasp and trying to bolt up from the car seat. 

“Calm down a second, okay?” Dean soothed as he pushed the much smaller woman easily back into the seat. “Let’s get this patched up first, then you can freak out, alright?” 

Lexi relented, letting Dean take her arm back and dropping her head into her free hand. Dean carefully cleaned the cuts then wrapped them in a bandage while Sam was busy plugging the address into the web browser on his phone. 

“Brattle Book Shop,” Sam said, scrolling down the page of search results. “It’s an antique book store in Boston.” 

“Why would Casperetta in there want to tell us about a bookstore?” Dean asked as he finished securing the bandage then stepped away, allowing Lexi out of the car. 

“And why the hell did she have to do it so painfully?” Lexi said, rubbing at her arm and hissing softly at the pain. 

“We can figure that out later,” Sam said, pocketing his phone and picking up his shotgun. “First, let’s go send Victoria where she belongs. Lexi…”

“Yeah, yeah, stay in the car,” Lexi said, rolling her eyes and she flopped back into the back seat of the Impala. She watched Sam and Dean make their way back up the path to the house, then pulled out her phone to look up the bookstore the spirit was so adamant she know about. 

It was only ninety minutes later when the two men came back down the path, looking not too much worse for wear. Dean had a small cut above his eyebrow seeping blood, and Sam was rubbing at his shoulder, but otherwise they were unharmed. Lexi piled out of the car when she saw them coming, slightly bouncing on her heels in her excitement. 

“Guys, I found something,” she called to them as they neared the car, waving her phone in front of her. “Friggin’ ghost was actually helpful.” 

“What do you mean?” Sam asked as he reached the car. 

“Psychic Possessions: Types, Rites and Rituals,” Lexi recited, holding her phone with the bookstore’s webpage on the screen out to him. 

“Holy crap,” Sam said as he skimmed through the description of the book. “This is…”

“Exactly what Lucifer is doing,” Dean finished with a chuckle as he looked over Sam’s shoulder at the book. “So, we going to Boston?” 

“Don’t need to,” Lexi said, grinning up at them. “I ordered it and had it shipped to the motel overnight. It’ll be here by two tomorrow afternoon.”

“Lexi,” Sam grinned down at her as he stepped forward and scooped her up into a hug. “You’re awesome!” 


	8. Chapter 8

“I’m hitting the shower before this shoulder knots up,” Sam said as they filed into the motel room. He rifled through his bag for a change of clothes as Dean dropped the first aid kit on the desk and began cleaning the small cut on his forehead in the mirror that hung over it. As Sam shut the bathroom door, Lexi reached for the remote and flipped on the tv. 

“Hey, you hungry?” Dean asked as he tucked the first aid kit back into the bag on the table. “We should go get food.” 

“Yeah, starving,” Lexi responded, clicking off the tv again and heading for the door. Dean grabbed his keys from the table and crossed the room to the bathroom, rapping loudly on the door before opening it and sticking his head in. 

“Food, we’ll be back,” he called over the noise of the running shower. Pulling the door closed again he turned and headed across the room. “Let’s go.” 

They drove in silence across town, headed for a pizza place Lexi said she’d seen on the way in. They’d gone about four miles when the idea struck Dean and a grin crossed his face. He gripped the wheel firmly and pressed down a little harder on the accelerator as they approached the strip mall with the restaurant. 

“Dean, it’s up here on the left,” Lexi said as she felt the speed of the Impala increasing slightly. She looked over at Dean and saw the smirk he wore as he sped up even more. “What are you doing?”

Dean couldn’t hold back the chuckle any longer as his smirk turned into a full-on grin that lit up his green eyes. He looked over at Lexi’s wide eyes as he laughed, still pressing down the gas pedal. 

“Don’t you dare, Dean!” Lexi yelled as it dawned on her what he was up to. She reached out to punch his arm but it was too late. At that moment the car filled with a now-familiar flash of white light and Lexi felt herself pulled with a whoosh. As the light receded she found herself standing inches from a very wet, very naked Sam in the motel’s shower. 

“What the fuck!” Sam yelped and stepped back against the shower wall, his hands instinctively dropping to cover himself. 

“Oh god!” Lexi cried and raised her hands to her eyes as the steaming spray of water soaked into her clothes. 

“Lexi, what…”

“Dean!” Lexi yelled as she turned her back to Sam, pulling the curtain back and stepping out of the tub. “I’m going to fucking kill your brother!” 

* * *

“Lexi?” Sam said as he smiled at the lump under the blanket on the cot. “It’s okay, I’m dressed.” 

“I’m not coming out,” Lexi said from under the blanket. “Not until Dean gets back, and then he’s getting punched.” 

“Welcome to life with Dean,” Sam said, laughing as he sat on the edge of the cot and patted Lexi’s blanket-covered knee. “Believe it or not, he only does crap like that to people he likes.” 

“Yeah, well,” Lexi started, then sat up, pulling the blanket down off her head to look at Sam, noticing his face still slightly pink. “He’s still getting punched.”

“Twice,” Sam said, laughing. He turned his gaze away from Lexi to look across the motel room, rubbing a palm down the leg of his jeans. “You know he thinks we should...be…”

“Together?” Lexi finished, dropping her eyes to study the blanket in her lap, feeling her face flush red again as Sam looked back over to her. “Yeah...I kinda got that.” 

“It wouldn’t be...I mean,” Sam stuttered, noticing Lexi’s blush and feeling his own face racing to match hers. “It’d make sense.” 

“Yeah, it would…” Lexi raised her head back up, meeting Sam’s hazel eyes. She blinked once, slowly, as Sam leaned forward toward her, sending a flutter up from her stomach as he came closer. He heard her breath hitch slightly as he moved closer, a tremble pushing out from his core. He pressed his lips to hers softly, lingering for just a moment before he pulled away just slightly, lowering his forehead to meet hers. Lexi felt his breath, warm against her mouth, taking in each detail of the moment with time seemingly slowed to a standstill. Sam pressed his lips back to hers, firmly this time, as his hand reached up to cup her neck, his thumb brushing her cheek and his fingers tangling into her curly hair. Lexi leaned in to the kiss, one hand sliding up to rest on Sam’s bicep, the other reaching up to the back of his head, fingers grasping lightly at his long, still-damp hair. They each felt the other leaning in closer, closing the gap between them and the kiss deepened, heightened, pressure increasing as both their mouths fell open against each other, lips and tongues both now seeking out the other as the rest of the room and world fell away, leaving nothing but the warmth between them. 

“Long time no see, bunk buddy.”

Lexi and Sam broke apart suddenly at the sound of the snarky voice in the room, their heads whipping around toward the window where the image of Lucifer stood leaning against the wall. Lexi gasped as she realized Sam had reacted to the sound at the same moment she did, and she felt a shudder run through his body under her hand. She turned her eyes back to him to see him grasp his left hand with his right and press his thumb deeply into his own palm. 

* * *

“No, no, no, no…” Sam muttered as he jumped up from the bed and began pacing to the far side of the small room, gripping his palm tightly.

“Sam?” Lexi said, standing with her eyes trained on Lucifer as he stood there smirking at them. She watched as Sam swung around to look at Lucifer, his eyes widening as he saw he was still there. 

“Come on guys, why so surprised? You knew it was coming eventually.” Lucifer took a step away from the wall, arms held wide as he glanced back and forth between Sam and Lexi. “You know you just helped me out by giving in to those pitiful little human urges, right?” 

“Not real.” Sam turned and gripped at his hand again, pacing the width of the room between the two beds. Lexi took a step back until she hit the wall beside the cot, looking between Sam and the image of Lucifer, completely at a loss for what to do. 

“Sammy, you know what needs to happen.” Lucifer took another step toward the middle of the room, toward Sam. 

“Not real. Not fucking real.” 

“You can make this go away for Lexi, Sam.” Another step closer. “It’s what you do, right? Sacrifice yourself to save everyone else.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Sam’s thumbnail began digging into the skin of his palm. 

“Just let me in, Sam. You know how to do it.” Two more steps and he stood just a foot away from Sam. “Save her, Sam. Come on.”

Sam knelt down to the floor, pressing his hands to his thigh, a small trickle of blood starting to seep from his palm. He pressed harder, letting the wave of pain flow through him, shuddering up his arm. His mind filled with images of red, visions of chains, hooks, his own meat searing from his frame. Layers of voices, taunting, laughter filling his ears, all the same voice, Lucifer’s voice, from years  _ in _ the cage, months of following him  _ outside _ the cage. He reached back to his pocket and slid out his jack knife, flipping it open as he looked up to face Lucifer, anger flooding his face as he saw the grin looking back at him. 

“Not…” Sam pressed the knife blade to his palm and drew it across his skin, letting the blood flow warm down his wrist. “Real!”

Lexi watched, stunned as Sam sliced into his skin, let the knife fall to the floor then dug his thumb into the gash, hissing out in pain. Her eyes widened as she saw the image of Lucifer flicker once, return to solid, then flicker twice more before vanishing. Sam let out a loud exhalation as Lexi darted to his side, kneeling beside him, taking his blood-soaked hands in hers. 

“Pizza!” Dean called out as he flung open the motel room door just minutes later. He stopped short as he saw his brother and Lexi huddled on their knees in the middle of the room, Lexi holding a red-stained towel over Sam’s hand. He dropped the pizza boxes to the table before racing across the room to join them. “What the fuck happened?” 

“Lucifer.” Lexi glanced over to Dean before turning her attention back to Sam’s hand. “Sam sliced his hand to get rid of him.” 

“Shit. You okay, Sam? Let me see…” Dean reached out and took his brother’s hand from Lexi, gently pulling the towel away to see the deep, two-inch gash still seeping blood slowly. “Yeah, we need to stitch this up little brother.” 

Dean grabbed hold of his brother’s elbow, urging him to standing, then led him to sit at the table. All three were quiet as Dean pulled out supplies from the first aid kit and began cleaning the wound. He glanced across the room to Lexi, sitting on the edge of the bed, wide-eyed and silent. Turning back to his brother he saw the same dazed expression on his face. As he began putting stitches in his brother’s hand he could feel the anger welling up inside him, trying to push to the surface as he forced it back down. Anger at having to go through this again, anger at his inability to do anything about the situation, because Lucifer wasn’t a tangible thing he could shoot or burn. He tied off the last stitch just as his hands began to shake. 

* * *

He watched as Lucifer stormed around the cage, kicking and punching at anything he could make contact with, throwing a tantrum like a two-year old child. He shook his head at the torrent of curses coming from his wayward, out of control child. His son he’d had so much hope for at first, but who had taken a turn, lost his way so many millennia ago. He’d had no choice but to lock him up, no choice but to save his creation from the destruction his son was so focused on, was  _ still _ so focused on. He wanted nothing more than to bring Lucifer to him, embrace his son and forgive him. But the damage Lucifer was still trying to unleash out of petty jealousy could not be allowed. It could destroy his whole creation. He considered his options as he watched his son rage, contemplating how to lock him down further, safer.

* * *

The Impala roared across the asphalt at ninety miles an hour headed toward Kansas and the safety of the bunker. Sam was focused on the pages of the book that had arrived at their motel a few hours before, his eyes darting across the pages, taking in all the information, searching for the right ritual to rid themselves of the threat of Lucifer. Lexi watched the scenery pass by with her head resting against the cool glass of the window, while Dean drove on, his jaw tense and his knuckles white against the steering wheel. 

“Anything yet?” Dean asked, shattering the silence in the car as he glanced over to his brother, his bandaged hand gripping the spine of the book in his lap. 

“A couple possibilities,” Sam replied, voice low, eyes still trained on the words in front of him. 

“Good.” Dean shifted slightly in his seat to lessen the stiffness in his back from the tension and hours of driving. “We should stop for food.” 

Dean turned off at the next exit, pulling into the parking lot of a diner just a mile down the road. Killing the engine, he stepped out and walked to the front of the car to stretch and wait for Sam and Lexi. Inside the car, Sam turned to the back seat to see Lexi still leaned against the window, making no move to get out. 

“Lexi, you alright?” 

“Yeah, I’m just…” Lexi finally sat up, lifting her head from the glass to look at Sam, her eyes wet. “I’m just sorry. For all of this.” 

“Why? Not your fault,” Sam said, his brow furrowed in confusion. 

“If I hadn’t bumped into you…” Lexi sighed, looking down at her hands as a tear slipped from the corner of her eye. “It’s different. I felt all of what you felt before. But this is different. I saw the fear in your face, Sam. I’m sorry.” 

Lexi watched, confused, as Sam quickly opened the door and bolted out of the car. He nearly ran around to the other side before jerking open the door next to Lexi. He knelt down as he reached inside to grab Lexi’s shoulders and pull her into him. His arms wrapped around her tightly, one hand coming to rest at the back of her head, fingers tangled in her curls. 

“It’s okay,” he whispered. “We’ll get through this, I promise.” 

“ _ Sure _ you will, Sam,” Lucifer snarked from the seat beside Lexi. “Just like you get through  _ everything _ else.” 

Lexi let out a gasp as Sam nearly dragged her to her feet and out of the car. Quickly letting go of her, he reached his right thumb to his left palm...but before he could apply any pressure to the fresh wound on his hand, Lucifer simply vanished. No flickering, no last smarmy comments, just vanished, leaving Sam and Lexi staring into the empty back seat of the Impala. 

* * *

He could feel his face grow red with anger as he watched Lucifer snap himself into the car, and letting his rage take hold for just a brief second, he snapped at the gold thread of energy connecting himself to his son, pulling him back and returning his consciousness back to the cage. He watched Lucifer snarl his rage only briefly before returning his attention back to scene around the black car and saw the hunter and the guardian fold their arms around each other before walking toward the door of the building. 


	9. Chapter 9

“I’m making a beer run, you guys need anything?” Dean said, grabbing his keys from the rickety table in the motel room after they’d all settled their bags by their beds. Seeing Sam and Lexi each shake their heads he pulled open the door and started to step out when a grin crossed his face. “Need me to stay gone a while?”

“Dean!” Sam yelled at the same time Lexi’s shoe whizzed across the room, only missing Dean’s shoulder because he ducked out and pulled the door closed behind him.

“I swear I’m going to punch your brother, Sam,” Lexi said, crossing the room to retrieve her shoe.

“I won’t stop you,” Sam said with a chuckle, sitting down at the table with the psychic possession book he’d been reading all day.

“Sam, you should take a break from that. Get some rest.” Lexi grabbed the remote from the top of the television and flopped on the end of Sam’s bed. “Come on, watch a movie with me. Just a couple hours.”

“Lexi, I really…” Sam started as he turned to look at her. He let out a sigh when he saw the pleading look on her face. He pushed the book aside and stood, crossing the room. “Alright, but only if we find something Dean will hate.”

“Works for me!” Lexi grinned, scooting back on the bed to lean against the headboard and patting the empty half of the bed next to her. Sam sat back on the bed as Lexi scrolled through the pay-per-view choices on the screen. It took them just a few minutes to agree on watching ‘A Beautiful Mind,’ Lexi happy because it was a long movie and would make Sam rest a while, Sam happy because he could hear Dean bitching about how geeky it was. They settled in to watch, elbows brushing once in awhile as they sat next to each other.

Half an hour into the movie, with Dean still not back, obviously _really_ giving them some time alone, Lexi began to yawn, sinking down a little further from the headboard. The chaos of the past few days and the long hours on the road was catching up to her quickly now that things were finally calm and she felt safe. Sam smiled down at her as she yawned, his own eyes growing tired as he reached an arm across Lexi’s shoulders, pulling her closer to rest her head against his chest.

It was an hour later when Dean opened the motel room door with a twelve pack of beer under his arm. He smiled as he saw his brother and Lexi, both sleeping soundly curled up against each other. He wrinkled his nose as he noticed the movie they had on, snatching the remote off the bed next to Lexi, then moved about the room quietly changing his clothes, grabbing a beer and settling into his own bed to watch tv as they slept.

* * *

4am brought Lexi awake with a gasp, bolting upright in bed, the movement pulling Sam from sleep as well. The now all-too-familiar red glow in the room started Lexi’s limbs trembling and caused Sam’s breath to hitch in his throat. Lexi turned to look at Sam as the faint sound of Lucifer’s taunting reached her ears.

“Do you hear that?” she whispered, her head tilting, straining to hear what he was saying.

“Yeah, I hear it,” Sam said, a furrow of confusion crossing his brow. “Why isn’t he appearing?”

The red light grew brighter in the room, then just outside the bathroom door, Lucifer flickered into view.

“Sam, what did…” Lucifer began before flickering out of sight again.

“What the hell?” Sam said, throwing his legs over the edge of the bed to stand.

“...you do to me!” Lucifer flickered in again, long enough to utter a few angry words before dissipating once more. The red lighting grew dimmer for a moment, then increased in intensity. The clanging, banging sounds of chains and metal grates echoed into the room as if at a great distance, guttural grunts of frustration joining in the mix but low enough they needed to strain to hear it. Sam looked down at Lexi from where he stood between the two beds as the sounds and light suddenly zipped to an end leaving the room quiet and dim, lit only by the blue glow of the television.

“That was weird,” Lexi said, pulling herself across the bed to sit on the edge. “Is he tired? Losing power?”

“No idea,” Sam said, glancing around the room half expecting something more to start happening.

“Dude, what’s going on?” Dean mumbled sleepily from the other bed.

“Visitor,” Sam replied, running his hands up through his hair while letting out an audible sigh.

“You guys okay?” Dean asked while propping himself up on an elbow. “What’d he do now?”

“Nothing,” Sam said, flicking on the bedside lamp as he sat back down on the bed. “It’s like he can’t hold his energy or something.”

“Really?” Dean asked, cocking an eyebrow. “ _Lucifer_ can’t get it up?”

“Or something is interfering,” Sam ventured.

“Either way, I’d call it a win,” Dean said.

“Yeah, I’m not complaining,” Sam replied, reaching out to place a hand at the small of Lexi’s back. “You okay?”

“Yeah, as Lucifer-visions go, that was tame,” Lexi said, slightly leaning back into Sam’s hand. “But I’m awake now. I’m gonna go shower.”

“How about you, Sam - are you okay?” Dean asked as Lexi closed the bathroom door behind her.

“Yeah, man, I’m good,” Sam said, crossing the room to retrieve the book from the table. “At least this time we have a solution, we have hope. It’s like someone is on our side now, y’know?”

“No kidding,” Dean said, sitting up in his bed. “I’d love to know how that damn ghost knew about that book.”

“Me too, man.” Sam flipped through the book, leafing over several pages before turning it around and handing it across to his brother. “We need to find a tattoo parlor.”   
“What’s this?” Dean studied the page and the symbol in it’s center. It was an image of an iron cross shape with enochian symbols inside each of the four legs. “Protection against possession?”

“Yup. Keeps out psychic possession like the other one keeps out demons.” Sam grinned at his brother, his eyes bright with the hope of ending the torment Lucifer had been raining on them.


	10. Chapter 10

“That sucked.” Lexi winced as she pulled her jacket up onto her shoulders and it dragged across the bandage covering the fresh tattoos on her back. “You guys  _ suck _ .” 

“Sorry, darlin’,” Dean said with a chuckle as he gave Lexi a light squeeze on her shoulder as they walked through the door of the tattoo parlor. “It’s the best protection - can’t fall off or wash off.” 

“Well, it damn well better work,” Lexi said, rolling her eyes. “Because if I went through that for nothing…” 

“We still need to find the right ritual to banish him,” Sam said as he opened the Impala’s passenger door. “Since he’s already in our heads, we need to get him out. So it won’t work right away. But it will keep him from getting back in.”

“I know,” Lexi said with a sigh, leaning gingerly against the back seat as the car’s engine came to life. “And thanks for making me get  _ two _ ! Damn demons.”

“Better safe than sorry,” Dean laughed. “Are you gonna bitch about this all the way back to Kansas?”

“Yes!” Lexi leaned forward and swatted Dean upside the back of his head. “That hurt!” 

Sam and Dean both started laughing as they rolled out of the parking lot onto the road. Lexi couldn’t hold back the smile that crossed her face at the sound of their laughs, feeling comfortable and settled with the two men who were now a part of her life. She felt safe now, despite the threats she knew she’d be facing in the future, knowing she would always have their protection. 

Five hours later Lexi woke with a sigh, the lines of trees speeding past on the highway having lulled her into sleep. She could feel the car slowing as she opened her eyes to see Dean pulling into a diner parking lot as the sun dropped down below the horizon. 

After a quiet hour of dinner with Sam still pouring through the book searching for a ritual and Lexi teasing Dean for hitting on their waitress, they headed back to the car. 

“Hey guys, give me ten minutes to walk around a bit? Still stiff from riding.” Lexi said, then walked away toward the side parking lot bordered by the diner and a copse of trees, stretching her arms and shoulders as she took wide strides while Sam and Dean settled into a quiet conversation leaning against the car. Five minutes later a scream had them both tearing off across the lot at a run, both men drawing their guns from their backs, searching wildly for Lexi.

Dean rounded the back of the building while Sam slowed, pulling out a flashlight and shining it into the trees. Both called out for Lexi as they frantically searched for her, panic wracking them both. 

“Lexi!” Sam shouted as he traced the light across and between the trees, his heart pounding harder with each passing second. His head darted to the left as he heard a muffled cry, the beam of light following the sound. He felt his stomach drop as he caught sight of her finally, her small form pinned against a tree, feet dangling four feet off the ground. “Dean! Over here!” 

He raced up the small incline toward the tree, her muffled, struggling cries growing louder as he approached. He could see the tears streaming down her face as she desperately tried to pull her body away from the trunk of the tree, but she remained firmly pinned. He reached the base of the tree in time to see what was holding her there come into focus. Lucifer floated beside her with his hand pressed against her throat, his face turned down toward Sam in a vicious snarl. 

“Whatever it is you’ve done, Sam, you’re not going to get away with it,” Lucifer spat. “You know I can snap her neck, right?” 

Sam’s eyes were wide, panic-stricken, as he watched. His mind raced, wanting to lash out and yell at him, plead with him, tell him he didn’t know what was lessening his power. He knew that would only open the door, and the fear of his past experience with Lucifer kept him frozen. 

“What the fuck?” Dean whispered as he came to a stop next to his brother and took in the sight of Lexi held fast to the tree. Before he could do anything, the copse of trees lit up with a shimmering, bright light around Lexi. 

“Holy shit…” Sam uttered, watching as a translucent figure laid a hand to Lucifer’s head. He could see the devil’s eyes grow wide, his mouth open to cry out as the light grew brighter, burning hot for an instant before both he and the figure of light dissipated with a quiet whoosh. Darkness returned around them as Lexi fell from the tree to land on the ground with a thud. Sam darted to her side in an instant, kneeling down to pull her to him as Dean joined him at her other side. 

Lexi latched on to Sam’s shoulders, gasping for air and sobbing as her whole body trembled. The sensation of Lucifer’s hand around her throat blocking her breath had yet to leave her, her head spinning, dizzy, her vision spotted from lack of air. She could feel Sam’s arms tight around her, Dean’s hand squeezing her shoulder. She focused on the warmth of them, the sense of safety emanating from them and began to calm herself. She slowed her breathing, slowed the tears and sobs, though the trembling remained steady. 

“Lucifer?” Dean asked, raising his eyebrows as his brother opened his eyes to look at him. 

“He was trying to kill her.” Sam took in a shuddering breath and tightened his grip on Lexi. “Did you see the figure?” 

“I saw a bright-ass white light, then she fell,” Dean answered, wide-eyed.

“Whatever that was, it saved her.” 

“Well, let’s not make it have to do it again,” Dean said, standing and grasping his brother’s elbow to steady him as he rose with Lexi still held firm in his arms. “We need to get back to the bunker.” 

* * *

He could feel the heat of anger finally waning as he watched his son, curled in the corner of the cage, unconscious. The level of interference he’d had to use to save the guardian left him feeling drained, and he was thankful it drained Lucifer completely as well. It would give him time to decide what to do and give the hunters and the guardian time to make their way back to the warded safety of their home. He allowed himself some time to mourn his son, still feeling the love for his child but certain now that locking him in the cage was his only choice. Lucifer had the power and the potential to ruin or kill so many souls, to negate the entire creation of man and earth. He wondered briefly if the loss of his own son was worth the continuation of man. Because, truly, what was the point of having created them in the first place?

He glanced down at the black car speeding across asphalt and let himself feel the waves coming up from the souls in the vehicle. Expanding his view he allowed the waves from each of the surrounding pockets of people waft up to him. The sensation enveloped him, filled him with warmth, as he remembered the point. All these millennia past, it was always the point, always the reason. The one thing more powerful than himself, the one thing more beautiful than anything he’d ever created. Love.

* * *

“I don’t know how I know, Dean, I just know. It’s the right one.” Sam said glaring up at his brother from the table in the library. It had only been an hour since they returned home, and Sam had set to work searching the book again immediately. Lexi slept soundly in the overstuffed chair in the corner, curled into a tight ball with Sam’s jacket draped over her. She’d refused to go to her bedroom, the fear from the earlier encounter with Lucifer still sending trembles through her body. Dean had been watching her periodically as he paced and puttered about the room, checking for any signs of distress while Sam researched furiously.

“So, what do we need to do this thing?” Dean asked, leaning over Sam’s shoulder to peer at the open page of the book. 

“Most of it we have, a couple things we’ll need help getting,” Sam replied, shifting and stretching in his chair. “You wanna call Cas, see if he can get them for us?” 

Sam went to the kitchen for coffee as Dean called the angel and explained what they needed. Then they busied themselves gathering ingredients and preparing the ritual. They cleared one of the tables and drew a circle of enochian symbols in a neat circle on its top in white chalk, setting a bowl in its center. 

They woke Lexi after Cas returned with the final two herbs required, then set about filling the bowl with sprinkles of herbs and oils, then several drops of both Sam and Lexi’s blood from shallow cuts on their palms. 

Cas and Dean watched as Sam and Lexi recited the incantation over the table, each then dropping a lit match into the bowl. A column of white smoke rose up, followed by a wave of warm air that seemed to envelop each of them, spiralling around them for a minute before releasing with a small pop. 

“Well?” Dean asked, looking from Sam to Lexi.

“I felt...something,” Lexi said with a shudder. 

“It definitely did something,” Sam agreed. “I guess we wait and see?” 

“Let me,” Cas said, walking up to Sam and placing a hand to the center of his chest, closing his eyes for a few moments as he seemed to search. “I can’t feel any connections to anyone outside the room, Sam.” 

“Good,” Sam said, pulling out a chair and dropping heavily into it. “Hey Cas, what do you think it was that helped us? I mean, finding the book like that, Lucifer losing power, and that figure we saw save Lexi?” 

Cas stood watching Sam for a moment, then glanced over at Lexi and Dean in turn, considering his words. He wanted to say what he thought had happened, but years of having had no hope left made him hesitate. It was as if saying it aloud would reignite that hope, and for the sake of his friends, for the sake of himself, he thought it better to leave it to the recesses of his mind. 

“I don’t know, Sam,” Cas said with a shrug. “I guess sometimes even the Winchesters can have some luck.” 

With a small smile, Cas disappeared from the room with his familiar flutter of wings, leaving the three glancing at each other, confused. A moment later Dean crossed the room to pour three glasses of whiskey. Sam, Dean and Lexi sat quietly at the table, sipping their drinks, each of them pondering the angel’s words. 

 

*** The End ***

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading - comments and constructive criticism are always welcome!


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